The events unfolding all over our institutions are all prepping for the 2028 elections.
TO say that our voters are bobo or bulok (literacy challenged) & blindly loyal to their politician - patron is a matapobre (classist) remark.We cannot blame the poor & ignorant as this is a derivative of a social system that created poverty and ignorance by those in the center of power & wealth.
But, yes, the ordinary person does not have civil and political consciousness; and because
there is widespread poverty, the ordinary person will welcome a regime of political patronage and never mind that such governance has an authoritarian tendency.
In turn, such authoritarian leadership will weaponize the law as a justification of its existence.
All things equal, people would prefer someone familiar.
People will vote for someone they have access to when they are sick or when they cannot pay school fees or when they cannot pay water and electric bills. Aside from governing through policies & programs for all, politicians must maintain a personal relationship with each voter in the village.
Of course, in this digital age, one can learn the algorithm for connection with most everyone in a way that voters will have online access to the candidate.
Likewise, a candidate may have wider reach & clout by understanding what topics are close to the hearts of the target mass of audience, what formats will catch their attention (i.e., reels, Tiktok, stories, etc.) and connecting content with active & popular like minded links or groups.
Elected officials are deemed source of largesse and no politician has a right to enter politics without the funding wherewithal of one’s own or from some rich patron who may demand behest favors during the politician’s term of office.
Still, election is a methodology of democracy and politics is the institution for crystallizing the people’s will.
Anytime is a good time to imagine how to address both the poverty of democracy & the literal poverty of our people.
The poverty in the rural areas is unspeakable.
It is easy to understand that poor people need the instant calories now to survive and cannot wait for poverty reduction programs that will take time to come their way.
The logic is that governance is the business of government, anyway, and promises of good governance are not edible.
A lot of people believe that whoever is in the reins of government will abuse power.
That we have all the laws and institutions to combat corruption cannot transcend this belief.
Still, oftentimes, justice wins & we in civil society continue with our work so that our communities will have access to social justice towards empowerment.
Always, I tell myself that “hope is the triumph over experience.”
at the Island Garden City of Samal
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